Ever wondered what happened to Jessie after he drove away with his life and his freedom at the end of the superlative Breaking Bad? Yeah, kind of… I mean, I was happy to leave it alone and ambiguous, but show runner writer and director Vince Gilligan thought it might be a good thing to show us.
And the response to it has to be, sure OK, it’s fine. I enjoyed it, I think. I can’t actually remember much about it, several months after giving it a go. Which is never a great sign. But I do remember thinking, yeah, that is on a par with a standard Breaking Bad episode. But it doesn’t really rock the world as a stand alone movie.
Aaron Paul’s career after the show ended has been a bit dubious, to say the least, with almost all his feature film efforts falling flat. He is almost certainly one of those actors at home on TV, but can’t quite transition to the senior ranks of stardom. He’s much better off in things like Westworld, in which he was entirely watchable in a smallish role. He’s a TV actor, for sure. Not that he does a bad job in El Camino, but just that he can’t sustain a lead role for two hours. No shame in it.
What is good about this Netflix vehicle (the title refers to his car) is that we get to see a lot of the show’s supporting cast given another chance to shine. The likes of Jonathon Banks and Jessie Plemmons have decent careers without it, but for the likes of Matt Jones and Charles Baker, who play Badger and Skinny Pete, this was a good shop window to go on and get more work, after what will probably be the best gig of their lives.
I really don’t have a lot else to say about it. Other than to wonder if other shows will pick up this idea of a feature length postscript now Netflix has shown it as a possibility…? With the right show, I think it isn’t necessarily a bad idea. But is it entirely necessary either?
Decinemal Rating: 68
The Wasteland 